Necessary Roughness
by Argea
Summary: Follow the story of a new survivor in a world turned upside down, as she joins the group. Daryl/OC. Follows the show, beginning on the 2nd season.
1. Chapter 1

**_Note & Disclaimer: This story is un-beta and it's a re-writing of an old fanfic I had. If you recognize names, places, dialogue I don't own it. Anything else it's mine._**

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They stopped in a deserted town for supplies. Dale parked the RV in the high point of the town and stood watch on top of it, while the able bodies on the group scattered for supplies.

The town was void of living people, and even the dead were far and few. The store windows had been broken, the stores themselves had been pillaged. The homes were empty, but with the practice the group had, they managed to find some things that could help them. Canned food, some clothes, linens, comforters. It wasn't the ideal supplies, nor the things they needed. But it was something that would make their lives easier and that was generally good.

"Rick, have you seen Carl?" Lori asked. "And Sophia?"

The sheriff looked his wife and then at their surroundings. He saw the two kids standing next to a car that had crashed. Recently it seemed, since there was still smoke coming out of the engine. He mentioned their direction with his head.

"I swear to God, these kids could invade a country without anyone noticing." Lori said, putting a hand on Rick's arm gratefully.

Lori walked to the kids, hands in pocket and found them looking at the drivers side of the car. Carl saw his mom get closer.

"Mom, can biters talk?" He asked running to her.

"No, I don't think so honey. Why?" Lori answered, as she followed Carl towards the car.

"The lady talked." Lori frowned and looked at the driver side.

There was a woman sitting there. Her face was resting on the deflating airbag, she had some gashes on her face, small gashes, where some of the front window glass and cut her. She seemed to be stuck between the airbag, and the seat, with the seatbelt keeping her motionless.

Lori grabbed the pocket knife she had, and touched the girl's arm. The three of them, that stood there, waited patiently for the outcome of Lori touch. The mother saw the girls eyes flutter open, and sighed when her eyes appeared to be normal. She moaned and mumbled something, repeatedly.

"Help me, please. Help me, please." She kept repeating, and Lori gasped.

"Are you bit?" Lori asked slowly.

"Help me, please."

"Are you bit?" Lori asked again. "Carl go get your father." She heard both kids run to the group and kept looking at the girl.

Lori inspected the girl as best she could. Her neck seemed to be clean, the arm Lori could move was clean. She peeked at her legs. She couldn't see much under the steering wheel. Her face, aside from the glass cuts and the small trails of blood running down, seemed clean as well.

"Lori!" She heard Rick's voice calling out to her. She waved and heard his heavy foot steps, walking towards the car.

"She's alive. I guess…" Lori took three steps back and waited for Rick to assess the situation.

The man took the gun out of its holster and repeated the same motions that Lori had before. He took a step back and took a deep breath. Shane was already walking towards the car. Rick tried to think of a solution.

He could get her out or leave her. If he left her she would most likely be food for the geeks. But if she came and died that would be a problem as well.

"We can't leave her." Lori said to him.

"We don't know her state. She could have internal bleeding."

"Rick, we can't just leave a human being on the side of the road. Specially if she not bitten." Lori said more fiercely this time.

"What's going on?" Shane asked and Rick pointed at the girl, who was still mumbling. "She bit?" Rick shrugged. "Are we leaving her."

"No." Lori said and walked towards the car. "We are not leaving a possible harmless person inside a car to be eaten alive."

Shane looked at Lori and then at Rick. He cleared his throat and moved next to Lori. He looked inside the car and touched the air bag. He pushed the airbag down and asked for Lori's knife, which she promptly gave him.

Shane punched a few holes on the airbag, and waited until it was empty. The girl slumped over and Shane placed her head carefully in the head rest and inspected the other side of her. It seemed clean. Her arm wasn't beaten, her sides were clean. From what he could see her legs were stuck under the staring and with the airbag full it would be extremely difficult for the geeks to get down there. He cut the safety belt, but he kept her body straight.

Shane straightened himself up and looked over to the couple.

"She seems clean."

Rick nodded and took a step forward. He hit himself mentally over the head over not being able to make the decision in time. He had to start thinking fast if he was going to be the unspoken leader of the bunch.

Both policemen grabbed the girl and carefully removed her from the car. By this time, Andrea and Daryl had already came to them and were watching the whole thing.

"We're taking in guests?" Andrea asked and Rick looked to her.

"Yeah. She's alive and most likely un-bit." Rick said, as they laid the girl on the ground. Andrea sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"We don't need another mouth to feed." Andrea said.

"Andrea, she's alive." Lori said and the other woman sighed, and nodded.

Daryl kept silent but crouched down to help them look for bites. The girl kept mumbling for help, as if she was a broken record. Andrea was searching the car for any identification of the girl. She found it in the trunk, along with a backpack and a metal baseball bat. She grabbed both things and got closer to the girl. Lori had taken the place of the men was searching her body. She was checking under her shirt and pants and was finding nothing but bruises. When she was finished, Lori got up and looked at the rest of the group.

"We need to get her to the RV, bandage her ribs and her neck. She doesn't seem to have any outward bleeding but she may have a concussion and internal bleeding. She must be secured, like she can move much." Rich gave out orders and the rest of the group nodded.

Andrea went back to the RV and asked Dale to get the mobile home closer. They took the girl inside and Lori explained to Carol and the kids what was going on. Carol and Lori placed the girl on the RV bed and grabbed the blankets and conformers, making a nest around the girl. She kept mumbling and Carol shushed her. Rick came inside the RV and saw Lori and Carol fussing about the other survivor. Andrea, Dale and the kids were leaning against the doorframe watching.

"Dale…we should get moving." The older man nodded and walked back to the driving seat. "Carl, Sophia, keep quiet okay?" The kids sat in the booth and nodded.

"She gonna be okay?" Carl asked and Rick shrugged.

"Dunno."

—

Over the course of a week, Carol took care of the girl, keeping her secure. The bruises were disappearing ,and the girl didn't seem to moan in pain so much. Carol knew about bruises and their process. How their color change and fade. Sophia and Lori helped her. They cleaned the gashes in her face. Sophia found out her name was Eliza Connor, she was twenty seven and she wasn't from around these parts.

The caravan stopped and Carol walked out of the RV, following Dale. The highway had been blocked by a myriad of cars. The short haired woman was listening to the other survivors conversations when she heard light footsteps behind her. And moaning. She grabbed the girl's bat that was leaning against the door frame and was about to crack whatever was it lurking behind her. Carol turned and was about to pull the bat when she saw the girl, Eliza staring in the doorway of the bedroom.

"My head hurts." She said softly and Carol put the bat down and walked towards her. "Where am I?"

"It's okay. You're safe." Carol helped her sit on the booth. "I'm Carol. You were in a car accident. We found you out there."

"I remember the accident." The girl said and Carol offered her glass of water, which she drank quickly. "Thank you. I'm so hungry."

"We couldn't feed you, you were unconscious, so that's understandable." Carol walked tot he cabinets and grabbed a few stale cookies they found a while back.

"Thank you." She ate them quickly and then looked up at the mother. "Thank you for saving me."

"Oh, don't thank me." Carol said . "Thank Rick and Shane. They brought you in. The kids found you."

"Kids?" The girl frowned. "How many are you?"

"Eleven. Nine adults, two kids." Carol said.

"Carol, we're….." Rick walked inside the RV and stopped when he saw the girl. "Oh. Hello. How you feeling?"

"I'm good. Thank you." The girl got out of the booth and walked to the man, holding out her hand. "Thank you for bring me in. I'm Eliza."

"Rick Grimes and it's alright. Finding another living thing out there isn't a bad thing. Get's our spirits up." "Come on out. We're going to check for supplies." He turned on his heels and walked outside, with the new girl behind him and Carol behind her.

The sun was shining in the sky and Eliza, put up an arm to shield her eyes. It hurt a little when she walked but she didn't complain. She could see the heads of the survivors looking at the cars that surrounded them. A little girl came running to Carol.

"Mom, can I go with Carl and Lori? We're checking the cars for things." The girl asked.

"Sure, I'll come with." The short haired woman looked at the other girl. "Will you be alright?"

"Yes." The girl smiled at the little girl and the girl smiled back. The two of them walked between the cars until they reached the other woman, Lori.

"I can help too." Eliza told Rick, but he shook his head.

"Nah, you can't stress those ribs much." Rick said.

"It's no stress. I'll look trough the trunks, no big deal. If it hurts I'll come back." Eliza started walking towards the closest car before Rick could disapprove of her plan.

There were two men working on the front of the RV. She nodded to them in salutation and they did the same. Eliza scavenge the cars along the road, making sure not to stress the ribs, like Rick had said. She saw Carol and waved at her, receiving a wave back and a motion to come over. She walked over the women, looking inside the cars all the same.

"Hey." Eliza said as she reached them.

"Hello." Lori answered giving her a short smile and extending her hand. "Lori. Rick's wife."

"Eliza, nobody's wife." The other girl smiled.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Lori asked rummaging through the trunk of a car.

"Probably." Eliza answered, mimicking Lori's movement on another car.

"Alright…As long as you don't faint on us, do what you want." Lori said with another short smile.

"I won't." Eliza kept walking through the cars, grabbing what she could and putting the supplies on a plastic bag she found laying on the floor.

She was rummaging through a white car with she heard a groan coming from the backseat. Eliza turned her head and saw the upper body of a person trying to move to get to her. She got out of the car, wincing as her ribs protested and ran to the back door of the car, that was wide opened. The thing was only just the upper body: torso, arms, head. The lower part seemed to been ripped off. The bony arms of the thing kept trying to reach her. The girl kept looking at the thing. It wasn't the first one she'd seen, and it the condition it was in, he was harmless to her. She could outrun him, seeing it had no legs. But she waited, until it dragged itself almost out the door. When it's head was half outside, she grabbed the back door and slammed it into the its head. She did it two times until the thing stopped moving and the took a step back breathing hard.

"Two points for patience, one for style." She heard behind her and jumped, wincing again. A black dude and one with a crossbow stood behind her. The black guy got up and offered her a hand. "T-Dog."

"Eliza." She responded shaking his hand.

"This one's Daryl." He pointed to the guy with the crossbow who grunted at me as Eliza nodded at him. She saw the hose in T-Dog's hand and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, siphoning gasoline."

"You know that's illegal right." Eliza said with a straight face and T-Dog actually looked like she had grown another head, so she smiled jokingly. "Come on then, keep at it."

Eliza pointed to the gasoline plastic containers that Daryl had in his hands. He was struggling to grab those and the empty ones.

"I can carry these, while you carry the full ones." Eliza suggested to Daryl who nodded and gave her the empty cans. She smiled nicely to him and they kept walking. Eliza rummaged through the cars the T-Dog was siphoning. They did it in silence. T-Dog trying not to taste the gasoline, Daryl because he really had nothing to say and Eliza because if she open her a whimper would come out.

"I can do that if you want, for a bit. You must have ingested enough fuel to make the RV go for a week." Eliza said to T-Dog when he spit out a mouthful of gasoline. Both guys looked up at the girl raising their eyebrows.

"You know how to syphon gasoline from a tank?" T-Dog asked and Eliza shrugged.

"It ain't exactly brain surgery." She answered. T-Dog looked at Daryl.

"She's right though." Daryl said. "Let's switch it up though. I'll do it for a while now."

Daryl had knelt down to start the job, when Eliza heard the tell tale moans. And then she saw the heads and their erratic bobbing. She grabbed Daryl's shoulder and shook it.

"What?!" He said angrily.

"Get under the car." She whispered, without taking her eyes from the group.

"What?" Daryl got up and looked at where she was staring at, seeing exactly what she was seeing.

He pushed her down under the car with him. Her hurt ribs didn't enjoy the movement too much and she groaned, making him put a greasy hand over her mouth. She pushed herself, closer to him and away from the edges of the car, hoping they could see her or smell her.

They heard T-Dog come around them and Daryl noticed he was bleeding from his arm. Daryl moved and got out from under the car, signaling for me to keep quiet. He grabbed to dead bodies and rolled them next to the girl. T-Dog was about to be breakfast when Daryl struck the walker on the head and its dead corpse on top the injured T-Dog, and then dropped another one on top of himself.

Eliza bit her lip and kept quiet, waiting for the procession to come to an end. She tried not to look at the dead bodiess next to her or to feel the pain in her rib and focus on the intricate pattern of the car on top of her.

The girl sighed in relief as the last one dragged himself away. Getting out of under the car, Eliza ran towards T-Dog and Daryl. Another relieved sigh came out of her when she see both Daryl and T-Dog alive. Well T-Dog was bleeding profusely from his arm gash, and Eliza grabbed the dead body from the top of him and pushed it off of him

"Dude, bad time to get a paper cut." Eliza said crouching down next to him. She reaped a pice of her button down shirt and wrapped it around the gash.

Daryl grabbed the uninjured arm of his companion and placed it around his shoulder. They started to walk until he stopped and looked back at me.

"Grab me my crossbow." Daryl shouted at Eliza and she looked around for it. The weapon was on top of the hood of the car. She grabbed it and ran towards the men.

"We need to get him there..." Daryl mentioned the RV with a tilt of his head. "Look inside cars, check if theres any crawlers." Eliza nodded at the orders and looked inside the cars checking for any enemies. At some point she unconsciously grabbed her side. She kept doing this until they got to the RV.

Eventually they got to where the rest of the group was. Carol was crying leaning into the rail, being held by Lori. Dale was still on top of the RV. Eliza frowned Rick was missing, so was Sophia. She leaned against the RV and made a face. She put the crossbow on the ground and leaned into it, trying to relief the pain.

"Don't do that?" Daryl's voice said from her side, and she looked up questioningly. "Don't lean on the crossbow, you'll mess the aim point."

Eliza quickly moved her weight and winced again. She gave him the crossbow and whispered sorry.

"You should check the ribs." He said as he accepted the bow. Dale ran down the stairs from the RV and ran to us.

"Daryl! Sophia's gone. Two walkers went after her. Rick too!" Dale said quickly, and Daryl ran over to the railing where Carol was standing. I followed him slowly and placed a hand on Carol's shoulder.

"Is Sophia back?!" Rick said, walking towards where we were from the forest and Carol sobbed louder, her legs giving out from under her.

"What the fuck man. Wasn't she with you?" Daryl asked and Rick eyes widened. "We gotta go find her."

"Yeah, let's go. She couldn't have gone far." Rick said. "Shane you coming?" The man nodded "Daryl, you might be useful as well, with you tracking skills and all. Dale, you coming?"

"I better stay with T-Dog and keep watch. I'm not good at finding things." He said calmly and Rick nodded.

"I'm going. One pair of eyes won't hurt" Glenn said and walked up to the search party.

"Very well. Girls, Dale, ya'll stay together." He said and they walked towards the vegetation.

The men left in a hurry, without questions asked, leaving us behind. Carol kept crying and both me and Lori went and sat her down in one of the cars. Dale was standing on the first step inside the RV, he shook his head and helped T-Dog inside.

Eliza watched as the men disappeared through the tree. Lori was trying to calm down the other woman as was Eliza. She felt for the mother. God knows how Eliza missed hers. It's the not knowing, Eliza kept repeating in her head. She shook her head and looked back at the vegetation. If it wasn't bad enough to be lost in a forest, Sophia was lost in a forest with human eating things chasing after her. It didn't help that the sun was coming down.


	2. Chapter 2

Eliza did what she could to keep the mother calm, but it was a losing battle. Lori knew that, Eliza knew it, hell even little Carl knew it. The only way Carol would ever calm down was to have Sophia right there.

"With 12 years old, your girl might be the one person to have the more chance of survival in these woods. She's small and kids think fast, on their feet, you know. Even the smallest hole is a safe place for her to hide." Eliza said softly to Carol, placing a hand on the mother's knee, as she knelt down in front of her, groaning.

"Thank you. That's nice of you." She said, shakily.

Eliza kept her place for a while until she heard Dale call out for Lori. Carol turned to the girl sniffling.

"How's your ribs?" Eliza shrugged.

"Sore." The girl decided to try and keep Carol distracted. "Maybe you could help he bandage them again. A little tighter?" Carol nodded and both of them got up and walked to the RV. As they got close they heard Dale, Lori and Andrea talking about moving cars.

"We're going to need to make space to turn the RV around. Move cars, you know?" Dale said to the other two girls, he noticed us approaching and turned to me. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I Dale, Dale Horvath."

"Eliza." She shook the extend hand of the man and smiled sadly. "Eliza Connor."

"If you're up to it you can come and help us with the cars." Dale continued and Eliza was about to nod when Lori cut her off.

"Her ribs are hurt Dale, I think she has done enough exercise for a day." Eliza frowned and turned to Dale.

"I still can keep scavenging the cars. If you let me…" She turned to Lori as if asking for approval, but her features read defiance all over. Lori shrugged.

"Sure, do what you can." Dale said smiling quickly.

Eliza and Carol got inside the RV where T-Dog was resting, his arm wrapped up with some blood soaked linens. Carol found clean bandages and Eliza took off her shirt and undid the old ones.

"We should try and check bigger cars. Trucks and what-not." Eliza said and Carol wrapped her. "Those usually carry first aid kits, and from what I seeing, we'll need every bandage available."

Carol hummed in agreement and finished her job.

"I'm going to go back and wait for Sophia." Carol said and turned on her heels without another word, leaving Eliza to fend for herself. The girl sighed and dressed herself again. She walked outside where Lori and Andrea were already removing the cars.

She made herself useful by keeping up the scavenging hunt on the cars. This time trying not to upset her ribs. After a while they heard Glen and Shane come back and the group walked over to them.

"Look Rick and Daryl are on it, kay?" Shane said to Carol. "Just a matter of time."

"It can be soon enough for me." Andrea said, passing Eliza and Glenn a water bottle. "I'm still freaked out by that herd that passed us by, or whatever you wanna call it."

"Party-time dead folk?" Eliza said trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't reach the desired effect and she shrugged.

"Yeah. What was that?" Glenn said. "All of them marching along like that?"

"Herd. That sounds about right"

"In the end, if you think about it, it makes sense. We humans are known for being able to adapt and live in groups in stress situations. If they have, even if a minimal, remembrance of their past as humans, that's what they'll do..." Eliza gave her opinion looking straight and Shane and he nodded.

"Yeah, we had a similar thing happen at camp. They were wandering in pack, only fewer. Could be that. Animals hunt together so can they."

For a short moment, the four of them stood there, wondering about the level of intelligence of the walkers. Eliza's opinion had been pretty much made up, after watching what they did to her old neighborhood. They had to had some kind of intelligence. Even if small and basic, they knew they could run and they knew they had to feed. The girl racked her mind for the one time she saw a walker wander by itself. For Eliza, walkers were just starting to scratch their ability to rationalize.

"Okay! Come on people. There's a lot of things to do. Let's stay on it!" Shane said and everyone walked away towards their duties.

Eliza took a breather next to Dale, who was fixing the RV. She drank her water and then gave some to Dale.

"What's you story Eliza?" Dale asked as he drank.

"Well, not much of a story. When this thing started I was in New York, teaching. After trying to get to my parents by phone I just, filled up my tank and drove as fast as could to Atlanta, that where they lived. I got home to a note on the fridge, saying they were going to grab the twins and go stay with family in Texas, and once I got there I should go to them. I found my moms dead body wandering the home. No sign of my father or my brothers. I just got the car and drove." Eliza looked down at her feet. "And then I don't remember much." Eliza made her long story short. The sordid details could be left for another time.

"Twin brothers?"

"Not mine. They were both twins"

"Did you kill your mother" Dale asked giving me back my bottle as I shrugged.

"She wasn't my mother."

"When was that?"

"Two weeks ago. I holed up in my house for a while, but then I got off my ass and started making my way to them." Eliza said and Dale looked at her for a while, compassion written on her features, and then resumed his task.

"Don't you want to find them anymore?" Eliza looked at Carol and than back at Dale.

"I don't really know I could make it out there. Alone."

"How old were they?"

"10"

"It's a small world." Dale said and Eliza nodded.

Both survivor kept talking. Dale seemed to be a good person. Grounded, neutral. Not overly optimistic and also not devastatingly pessimistic. He seemed to see thing through another kind of scope, which made him a nice conversationalist. Eliza realized she liked talking to Dale. Little Carl came running towards us with a package under his arm.

"Look what I found." He gave the plastic thing to Dale, who inspected it. "Shane said to give it to you."

Dale unrolled the package on top of a cars hood and whistled. It was a whole bunch of knifes and axes. Daryl took a machete out a turned it around in his hand.

"This is helpful Carl." Dale said. "Good find."

Carol made her way back to us and I offered her my bottle of water. She took it and drank a big gulp of it. She leaned back into the RV aswell.

Suddenly the silence was broke by a car roaring to live. The small group near the RV walked towards it, and got there in time to hear the radio go on an emergency channel. Broadcasting.

"Is that a local signal?" Glenn asked, as they got to the site.

"It's got to be within 50 miles of here." Dale stated

The emergency broadcast continued. 'Help is on the way' it said. Bullshit was what everyone was thinking. Help is probably hiding it's ass, praying no one bites on it.

Shane turned off the radio and ordered everyone back to work. To which they all complied without much fuss. It was clear what the hierarchy of the things was. Rick was the leader and Shane was the right hand. If the main one was unavailable, you should follow Shane's orders to the T.

The sun started setting and Dale called everyone to start packing everything they've picked up from the cars to the RV, for safe keeping. Carol had got back to the railing, near the vegetation, looking out for the men and her little girl. Her hands gripping the rail. It saddened Eliza to see her like this, but she let her be, and kept helping Lori and Glenn, while Dale, Andrea and Shane were having a small discussion. Something no one wanted to interfere, apparently.

The vegetation moved and everyone stopped whatever they were doing. They all held their breathes until the two men walked towards the interstate. Two men, no girl. Carol was having a small break down while hearing what the men had to say. The searches were closed for the night. And Daryl explained how they opened a walker and 'made sure' she wasn't inside. Eliza swallowed dry. Great visual she thought.

Eliza crossed her arms as the mother cried for her little girl, but got closer to the women. They huddled back together near the mother. No one was liking the situation but, the truth was, they were right. Nothing could be done at nightfall, it would be too dangerous for anyone.

Eliza's mind drifted to her family. She didn't know where they were. Maybe they weren't anywhere anymore. Maybe the were mindlessly wandering. She shook her head, pushing those toughest away. Her father was a smart man, a military man, a hunter. He had the skills needed to survive. If anybody had them he was the person.

The girl looked at the man huddle up together, probably planning what to do. She strode there, head held high, confident she was going with them on the next hunt for Sophia, no matter what. Eliza was gonna make her father proud. She cleared her throat to grab their attention, and Shane looked straight at her and she slowed her step a bit. He had that stare that could physically make anyone take a step back. And for a moment Eliza faltered.

"Is there anything you need?" Rick asked and Eliza changed her gaze from Shane to Rick.

"Is the search party male only?" Eliza asked.

"Nah. Andrea and Lori will probably want to come too. Why?" He answered calmly.

"I wanna go too." She said, her confidence coming back again.

"It's gonna be a lot of walking, probably running. Are your ribs up to that?" Eliza shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah." Eliza reassured. "They're almost perfect." She lied.

As darkness began to fall, Carol's sobs got louder as she mumbled about her girl being in the woods alone, in the dark. Carl had fallen asleep leaning on his mother shoulder, as they sat on the RV's front steps. She looked at him and sighed as he shivered. The night was cool in comparison to the temperatures in the day.

"We should start thinking about the sleeping arrangements for tonight." She said slowly.

"Maybe we should sleep on the cars." Andrea suggested.

"It's safer. If the horde comes back it's better than sleeping outside." Lori nodded and looked at Eliza "Where you going to sleep Eliza?" I shook my head and shrugged.

"Hum, hopefully not outside." She said.

"Dale will probably lend you the floor of the RV" Andrea said, giving the girl a sympathetic smile.

"I'm gonna go ask him." Eliza said slowly and got up towards Dale.

Dale was indeed kind enough to offer her the floor of the RV. Carol told her where her backpack and bat were and she stow them under the table of he RV, out of the way. Eliza walked outside and stood in the clearing made from the cars. She looked around the makeshift camp. Rick, Lori, Carl and Carol were inside the car I assume it was their 'home' for the moment. Andrea and Dale were inside the RV, as was T-Dog. Shane and Glenn were playing cards inside the new found car.

Daryl was no where to be found. She wanted to talk to him about how he was going to go around the search party. She wasn't exactly an expert on this things, but she remembered a bit of her father's words and when he took her hunting once. According to Andrea and Dale, he was the one to go to for hunting and tracking. Although, and also according to those two, he was definitely not a people's person. But he hadn't seem that bad before.

Eliza found him sitting behind a motorcycle, cleaning his weaponry. Taking a deep breath, she walked towards where he was and sat down in front of the small fire he had made. If he saw her sit down, he didn't make any mention towards acknowledging her.

"Hey." Eliza said to him.

Daryl finally looked up at her and then back down at his crossbow, resuming his task. The girl held her breath and blew it off after a while, when he kept ignoring me. She wasn't being rude, so was this the southern charm Andrea had warned her about.

"So how are we gonna go about finding Sophia?" Eliza asked quietly, leaning her elbows into her knees. He had a weapon in his hands, so she wasn't going to start anything.

He looked up at the girl and raised his eyebrows, cocking his head to the side. He shook his head slowly, put his crossbow down and leaned into his knees, mimicking my position.

"We go look for her, when the sun comes up. You can stay with the girls and you'll be fine." He said, his thick southern accent rolling out like waves. Eliza frowned.

"I didn't mean to—" Eliza started but he cut her off.

"With your ribs like they are now, you're only going to slow us down. You should stay behind." He said matter of fact. The sympathetic look on her face was gone in a moment. He could have said that with worry for her. But he said it in a dismissive tone, as if she wasn't going to help any.

"My ribs may be bruised, but my eyes work just fine. I thought that's what you needed when you were looking for someone, but I could be mistaken. I mean you're the expert…" Eliza felt her bitchiness start to show.

They looked at each other. Blank faces, awkward silence. Measuring each other. Trying to figure out if they were worth the trouble of wasting any more conversation time.

"You don't own a gun?" He asked in a disgusted tone. "You only had a bat in your car."

"I'm pretty good with the bat."Elize countered, blank faced.

"That ain't what I asked." He leaned back on his hands.

"No, I don't own a gun. I'm not that fond of fire guns." The girl answered sincerely.

"But you like hiding behind people that have guns." He said looking at his crossbow and Eliza frowned.

"The fuck is your problem?" She asked him.

"My problem is that we're taking in strays that can't even defend themselves against a fucking light pole, let alone a walker." Daryl looked at her dead in the eyes as he said this and she frowned, shaking her head. She was about to get up when he started again.

"Did you ever killed a walker?" Eliza nodded, not really wanting to talk about it. "How many?"

"You keep track?" It honestly wouldn't surprise her if he did.

"Nah. But you're a woman. You lot keep track of every fucking detail." He said as he smirk grew. Yeah, Eliza thought, he was doing this on purpose, there's no way he's actually this rude.

"I don't keep track of my killings. Sorry. " Eliza said, getting up from her place.

Eliza couldn't understand what she had done to him to get this response. And even if she was a 'stray' how did he know if she could or couldn't defend herself. He know as much about her as she knew about him.

"Figures. Well, still, your choice of weapon I find it lacking. Not very menacing." He said.

"Menacing?" Eliza asked raising an eyebrow. "Where did you get that from? Had a dictionary for lunch?"

She took a step away from him, but heard his voice continuing the conversation.

"Squirrel" He said.

"What?" Eliza turned around and placed her hands on her hips.

"I ate squirrel for lunch. Just how I like it...Raw..." He actually patted his stomach. "Tastes like chicken. Start getting used to it. It's gonna be your main course, if ya stay."

The girl rolled her eyes at his dumb ass conversation. Seriously she couldn't believe a group like this, of seemingly nice people could put up with this. Then again, he was the one sitting alone outside. She turned on her heels and walked inside the RV fuming. Andrea and Dale sitting on the booth. T-Dog was snoring away in the bedroom. Andrea looked up and grinned knowingly.

"We were wondering how long it would take for Daryl's southern charm to hit you." She said.

"To be honest, it took longer than I thought." Dale said, not taking his face from the tattered book he was reading.

"He's a charm alright." Eliza said sitting down next to Andrea.

They talked about Daryl and the rest of the group for a while, getting to know each other, but tiredness got the best of them and they turned in for the night. Andrea and Dale in the bedroom, with T-Dog. Elize accepted the comforters that Dale offered and place them on the floor of the RV, making a small comforters mattress. After a while the whole world seemed dead to her. The only sounds she heard were the fire cackling outside and the crickets chirping away.


End file.
